Radio Script #1226

Little Talks on Common Things
January 20, 1980

Today let us examine the pages of a newspaper published in Gardiner in the early years of this century. It is the issues
of Gardiner’s Daily Reporter Journal of April 1 to April 30, 1901 that now come to our attention.

The masthead tells us that it was published every weekday by the Gardiner Publishing Company. On the newstand it cost two cents. By mail it was 50 cents a month, $5 a year, and could be delivered to Gardiner households by carrier for $6 a year. The publisher was E. M. Merrill.

From the paper’s church notices we learn that, at the dawn of this century eighty years ago, Gardiner had seven churches. Its oldest was Christ Episcopal, descendant of the church founded there by Dr. Sylvester Gardiner in colonial days. There were two Baptist churches, Calvinist and Free Baptist, one Methodist, one Congregational, one Christian Science, and one Roman Catholic.

National news concerned continued fighting in the Philippines after the U.S. take-over of those islands as a result of the Spanish American war. It was the U.S. that had to subdue the insurrectionist Filipinos under Aquinaldo. On April the Gardiner newspaper stated: “It looks as if actual fighting in the Philippines is about over. The capture of Aquinaldo was followed by the surrender of several companies of aroused Filipinos. On Luzon the last armed force has surrendered. Opinions vary as to what should be done with Aquinaldo. Few favor his execution, but demands range from spanking him with a shingle to making him Collector of Customs at Manila. U.S. will not be severe with him.”

The paper tells us that in Bath a large group of citizens paraded on Sunday to protest the alleged selling of liquor by several places in that city and the authorities’ failure to enforce the prohibitory law.

A great horned owl had been captured on the Brunswick Road just outside Gardiner. The paper said the bird had been a frequent visitor to Mr. Harrington’s hen house with devastating results. It concluded, “The owl is a beautiful specimen of its kind.”

In our energy crisis of 1980, it is interesting to read in the Gardiner paper a reference to oil 80 years ago. “Oil has been discovered in Colorado. With the wells in California and Texas, the supply should be equal to the demand for many years to come.” Of course in 1901 no one foresaw that in three-quarters of a century millions of motor vehicles would be consuming millions of gallons of gasoline, and millions of homes would be heated by oil.

Labor unions were just beginning to secure strength in 1901. The Gardiner paper said: “Demonstrations by unions in many cities are meeting with resolute resistance. The unions ask for a shorter work day and higher wages. Painters and decorators in Worcester are asking for an eight hour work day. In Rochester, N. Y. paper hangers are on strike for 2 cents more an hour. In Lowell the plasterers are on strike for an 8 hour day. In Syracuse workers want an 8 hour day and 20 cents a day higher pay. Mill hands in Buffalo are a bit more moderate – now on a 10 hour day, they are striking for 9 hours. We hear that the steel workers in Pittsburgh will be next.”

Togus was in the news. The paper said: “The Soldiers Home at Togus is offering a new amusement hall. It will have billiard tables, a card room and other features.”

The paper commented on the relative newcomer, the telephone. “The main benefit of the telephone may be to discipline its users to be patient. The instrument is a great test of this virtue. If you are in a hurry, you may have to wait ten minutes before getting the number you want. You probably can’t express your annoyance to the telephone girl because she isn’t anywhere near your instrument. Then too, the line is usually busy. You must either learn patience or go crazy.”

To me, the extraordinary thing about that item is its reference to telephone numbers. I recall very well that, as late as 1901, the telephone then in use in my native town of Bridgton had no numbers. You told the operator the name of the person and she rang that person’s phone. Often the girl would give you a reply like this: “Jim’s phone doesn’t answer. He’s probably down in the pasture, and she may be hanging out the clothes.” Sometimes the operator would say, “No use my ringing that phone. I know they’ve gone over to Norway today.”

As we start the year 1980, let us note this item in 1901. “The U.S. Treasury will have a surplus of about $60 million this year. That money shouldn’t stay in the Treasury. It should be put into circulation.”

How different was the economic situation then from what it is today when we know that too much money in circulation – that is, too much paper money, with no gold or silver to back it up – just government promises – is the principal cause of inflation.

At the turn of the century a prominent Central Maine industry was Kennebec ice. The Gardiner paper said: “Powerful Tammany chieftains are borne merrily along on the munificent flow of the Ice Trust. New York interests have not yet become concerned enough to attack the Trust because the price of ice is not yet distressingly high. Big contractors do not have Tammany on their backs because the ice barons know how to take care of the Tammany chiefs.

“That is not the situation on the Kennebec. Maine is up in arms against, the Ice Trust. The Trust and Tammany have gained
control of most of the Kennebec harvest. Cutting, storing and shipping ice gives employment to thousands of Maine Yankees. Last winter there was such a big cut on the Hudson that Maine was almost completely ignored, and control by the Trust caused a bad drop in Maine economy. Last winter, more than 200,000 tons of ice was harvested on the Kennebec, and what was sold at all went for appallingly low prices. The Trust in New York sees to it that when the Hudson prospers, Maine suffers.”

Maine did not have to wait until its Milk Commission of the 1970’s to have trouble about price and distribution of milk. In 1901 the Gardiner paper has this to say. “The much hoped for settlement of the present milk war in Boston between the contracting buyers and the New England Milk Producers Association seems now further off than ever. Today the contractors refused to ratify the agreement reached yesterday by representatives of both sides. The problem seems to be the charge-back on surplus milk. The producers are still holding back milk, or in some cases dumping it. More than 2,000 cans were held back from reaching Boston yesterday. Meanwhile it is, as always, the consumer that suffers.”

Lisbon Falls had just had a big fire in 1901. Rapidly spreading through the business district despite help from Lewiston, Perham, Brunswick and Bath, the conflagration raged for 12 hours destroying most of the Main Street structures and causing a loss of nearly half a million dollars.

The spring of 1901 saw a big freshet on the Kennebec Water overflowed the river bank above the Gardiner bridge. The angry current had released huge piles of logs at South Gardiner and had swept them swirling down the river. Crews were at work all the way to Bath, trying to retrieve escaping logs. The river at South Gardiner had been jammed by thousands of logs from the mills at Fairfield and Waterville. In Gardiner the city wharves were submerged, and in Augusta Water Street was flooded. The Portland Telegraph cable was broken. The high water closed many mills. Some bridges had already given out when an issue of the Gardiner paper stated that the flood had reached its peak. A landslide in Randolph had completely closed all traffic on the Kennebec Central narrow gauge line to Togus.

One issue of the paper reported an unusual accident in these words: “A severe loss was caused this morning at Gray’s Mill when a handsome pair of horses owned by the Hollingsworth & Whitney Paper Co. broke through the mill platform and were drowned. The team had backed into its customary place under the sheet where it loads sawdust to be taken to the H. & W. mill for fuel. Suddenly a cross timber holding the flooring broke and the horses fell into the swift current. Both horses were drowned despite desperate efforts of the crew to save them. They were valued at $400.”

1901 was the year of the big fair at Buffalo, the exposition where, several months after these issues of the Gardiner paper, President McKinley was shot – the assassination which brought Theodore Roosevelt into the White House. Of the start up of this exhibition the Reporter Journal in Gardiner has this to say. “Put me off at Buffalo. That is the slogan of big ads now appearing in the press allover the East.” In fact, the Gardiner paper itself had an ad that read: “Reserve accommodations for the Pan American Exposition with the Pan American Tourist Company. We will meet you on your arrival, care for your luggage, guide you to your room in one of Buffalo’s rest homes and present you with full information about the city and the Exposition. We will protect you from extortion and annoyance. Lodgings are going to be scarce. Let us make them for you well in advance.”

Once again, let me remind you that even as late as 1901, the ads told more about the paper’s publishing city than did the news items. So let us note a few of the Reporter Journal’s advertisements.

“F. S. Smith & Co., Dress goods, silks, suits, skirts, waists and millinery. Great variety of wash goods. Battenberg pillowtops,15¢ each. Gents’ over shirts 24 cents. Misses’ vests 12 cents. We have spike belts in all sizes 25 cents. Boy’s heavy school stockings 17 cents a pair. ”

“Kondel Dyspepsia tablets digest all that you eat.”

“Mr. F. E. Ryan at 237 Water Street has a new stock of spring hats, plumes and flowers, very latest styles. The Easter trade
will deplete the supply fast. So, women of Gardiner come in before it is too late.”

“Typewriters for rent. Smith Premiers. Yosts, Remingtons. $3 to $5 a month. Why depend on illegible handwriting when you can rent a typewriter.”

“Moses Shapiro. California Fruit Store, Gardiner. I have a big lot of oranges that must be sold by Saturday night. 16 cents a
dozen. Large, ripe bananas 25 cents a dozen. Dates 4 pounds for a quarter. Large grapefruit, 10 cents each.”

Today women would certainly find the 1901 prices at O. B. Clason’s dry goods store exceedingly attractive. Prints 4 to 8 cents a yard; percales 6 and 7 cents; laces 3 to 20 cents; handkerchiefs 3 to 10 cents; corsets from 25 cents to $1.25, the most popular goes for 75 cents. A woman could buy a housedress then called a wrapper for 89 cents.

As for eating, note these prices for canned goods. Peaches 12¢; Pears 15¢; Strawberries 10¢; Peas 10¢; tomatoes 12¢; string beans 3 for a quarter. One could get a big beef roast for 15¢ a pound; pork for 14¢ and lamb for 16¢; ham for 18¢. If you wanted Campbell’s Soup, you could get 6 cans for half a dollar.

And now we end our story with this sweet ad. “Next Saturday, G. C. Brown will sell 200 pounds of regular 40 cent chocolates for 25 cents a pound. Be at his store, 232 Water Street in Gardiner, early on this day. These-chocolates are likely to be gone by noon.”

Year: 1980